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Hair Fair Designers — Anya Ohmai

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Anya Ohmai is one of the most beloved creators in Second Life® for very good reasons. All of her creations are full of joy, her playful wit and quirky humor part of their DNA. Despite her unquestionable talent, she remains humble about her skills, seeing herself as a perpetual learner always striving to do better. She is also a person of character whose kindness goes to the marrow. She does not produce a lot of hair; but every year at Hair Fair, there is a crowd of eager fashionistas waiting to see what flight of fancy she has come up with this time.

Ballerina Solitude

Ballerina Solitude by Anya Ohmai

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Ohmai’s personal style is very soft and feminine, youthful and sweet. The humorous motifs in her creations lead people to adopt a more kawaii sort of style with her hair. I thought it would be a fun challenge to go in the opposite direction, showing that her hair works just as well for high fashion styles. You will have to decide if I succeeded.

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?
Anya Ohmai: The most exciting thing that has happened to me in Second Life was actually one of the first few weeks I joined the grid. I was such an avid explorer back then because I was a blogger, so I made it a point to go to many different sims. I came across this little Japanese cafe owned by Amika Jewell and she was there to greet me as a newbie in Second Life. She asked me what I had wanted to do in Second Life and I told her I wanted to be a creator. Mind you this was an avatar that was a few weeks old, so Amika most likely thought I was completely insane. She did however give me some tips on how to do that and said if I ever made a store, maybe someday we’ll meet again.
Flashback to a year later, I actually met Amika at another Second Life sim and she asked if I had remembered her from back then. She proceeded to tell me how proud she was to see that I finally did make my Second Life wishes come true and that she owned so many of my creations. We proceeded to befriend each other and talk occasionally. I think that was exciting because no one else was too friendly with me when I started out, and for someone to remember me even though its been so long was just a lovely experience!
I think that captures the essence of Second Life’s warmth very well, there is a very human quality to it that you don’t find in many other games. I know that little gesture of kindness she showed me was probably not a big deal, but it did help solidify my love for Second Life.
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!Ohmai Salon Uni. You can change the crown to a band with the accessories HUD.

IOF: What drew you to designing hair? When did you start? What are some of the changes that were most significant for you?
AO: I actually started out thinking I wanted to be a Hair creator. Before Second Life I sold Ball Jointed Doll wigs in real life, so that background actually made me wanna do it in Second Life too. I started with a small store in creators pavilion back in 2009, with 2 hairstyles and a random array of clothes. I stopped doing hair after because I wasn’t very proud of the way I did hair. When I heard about Hair Fair, I thought it’d be awesome if I created hairs once a year for it – just to challenge myself and also try to fulfil the ‘want’ to make hair. Sasy was kind enough to offer me a position in Hair Fair even when i was new and that was an awesome opportunity!
The biggest change from the first time I made hair to the way I do it now would probably be the thought process that goes into it. Hair making works very differently from other creations. You start with a texture that you work around in, whereas other items start with model ling before you bake and texture. Thats a huge struggle in the beginning to switch my brain gears to operate that way. My experience in working with all other types of mesh creation has helped me understand and figure out that process more. I think the work I do for Hair now is more deliberate than it used to be – in the past i’d lay out a bunch of strands and hope it works somehow, now I actually visualize the end product before going into it.
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!Ohmai Salon Tako comes in three pieces, the pony tail, an additional cluster of curls to augment the pony and the tentacles. Each comes with a rigged and unrigged version.

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Hair Fair Designers — Kavar Cleanslate

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Kavar Clearnslate - self portrait 2015

Kavar Clearnslate – self portrait 2015

Kavar Cleanslate is the highly popular and much-loved stylist behind the Exile brand. While he turns his hand to every style from short cuts to romantic updos, he is best known for his lovely long flowing styles and he innovations in texturing, tinting and streaking hair with HUDS that allow wearers to go wild with color.

 

 

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Exile Siren’s Call can be found at Hair Fair. The lingerie is from Luxuria.

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Exile In the Shade

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life®? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Kavar Clearslate: I think the silliest was a few years ago (after a Hair Fair set up in fact) I set up this race track with friends in the sky with buildings that had those break apart scripts in them and we spend 2 hours wrecking the place with cars and prims flying everywhere, it was a blast.
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Baby You Can Drive My Car – to Hair Fair

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I like the accoutrement that completes my SL, little touches here and there. I’ve just added a BIG touch – a BIG honking car. I’ve always been a fan of cars in my SL – my avatar has places to go, she can’t be expected to bike and scooter everywhere can she? She’s American – so she LIKES a big car. This new beast from HAN fit the bill and there’s room in the back for a car seat should I ever bring the baby back from Auntie Inventory. I could pile all sorts of friends in this beast! You can pick one up, or another model, if you need a new car, or just want one HERE. But if you’d like to get your engine up and running very efficiently once again, then this Rebuilt Bosch injection pump brand new here is all you need! Also, if you’re looking for cheap car parts online, which at the same time correspond to original quality, then you can visit a site like https://forbrukerguiden.no/bildeler-pa-nett/ for some best preferences! After all NEED is rarely the right word around here. Continue reading →

Hair Fair Designers — Tabata Jewell

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Tabata

Tabata Jewell Self-portrait 2015

Tabata Jewell is the force behind the iconic hairstyles at Vanity Hair. Her hair creations are instantly recognizable as she takes a highly individual approach, creating stylized and abstract hair styles that are perfect for high fashion looks.

I love realistic hair styles for everyday wear but one of the reasons that Vanity Hair is on my personal list of favorite hair stores is that she goes in the opposite direction, emphasizing form and innovation over realism. For formal wear, haute style looks and high fashion, that abstraction can be perfect.

 

 

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Vanity Hair Jumper at Hair Fair 2015

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience? 

Tabata Jewell: Hello Cajsa!! If I am completely honest with you, it hasn’t been lots of craziness in my SLin the past years. But my beginnings sure were 😊.

When I started in SL, first thing I did was going to a dance club, I think everybody has done so, it is the fastest way to socialize. I can’t recall the name of the club something like breeze, anyway it was a jazzy music dance club. Everyone was wearing gowns and tuxedos, and there I was with my default avi. When I understood than in order to look half decent I need lindens I went to all the clubs looking for a job. And I finally got hired at one. As a stripper 😊. The name of the club was Moonlight , I earned my first lindens there. Had lots of fun, but back then there was no voice so we had to emote everything. I remember sweating at my computer cause I could not emote and take clothes at the same time. Then the club closed. I was really sad. But I decided I wanted to be a geisha and I enter in the Blue Lotus okiya, was there for 2 years and became a senior maiko. In the mean time I started modeling workshops at Modavia and combines both worlds. I finally decided to go for fashion by the hand of Modavia. Continue reading →

Show Me The Hair That Stole Your Heart

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Once upon a time there was a girl who was a blogger who wasn’t very experienced. She wasn’t jaded, she didn’t eyeroll at things that had been done 100 times. She didn’t log in and log out after getting her photos, she spent time and enjoyed her SL.  Her SL wasn’t silent, her SL was full of friends, not just acquaintances she didn’t talk to much.

This is about that girl.

That girl fell in LOVE with a hair that Gogo blogged and she HAD to have it.  I would link to Gogo’s post but knowing that dork, she probably purges old pics because she thinks they look dated. Regardless, it was there once. What was the hair? It was this.

This was literally one of my Happiest Hair Fair Memories – seeing this hair, and having the Lindens to go buy it.

I would love to see in comments or on plurk  the hair that for you, has a happy HAIR FAIR memory. Hair Fair isn’t just an event – it’s a celebration.

 

Is It a Game If It Breaks Your Heart?

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Melanie Kidd

Melanie Kidd in 2012

Melanie Kidd was the first blogger I ever met. I was a newly minted Second Lifer and was dating someone who made custom surfboards as well as swimsuits and rash guards and she blogged his store several times. I was there when she came to check out his store and then I started reading her blog, Grid Expectations. I just knew she was smart, clever and funny because of that name.  She did a blog post on Baiastice that bankrupted me and started me on my long love affair with that clothing line and my eventual friendship with Sissy Pessoa. She did another post on Subtle Facial Expressions that I still go back to again and again. I got to know her better when I joined Plurk®. She was unfailingly kind and compassionate, a person who focused on others.

She died this week. Cancer, of course. This is the summer of cancer. Cancer has taken six friends since May and is haunting other friends and family.

I do not want to exaggerate my loss. We were not close, intimate friends. We were friendly, a casual friendship like 90% of friendships. But still my heart breaks, for the world that has lost another of the good ones, for Gogo, Cake and Carson, her closest friends whose hearts must be shattered, and for her family who has been robbed of her joyful, sunny spirit. Maybe a little bit for myself, too, because I liked her, damn it.

Lots of pixel ink has been used to debate whether Second Life® is a game or not. Is it a game if it breaks your heart?

Second Life’s motto is “Your Life. Your imagination.” I guess that answers the question of whether it is a game for me. If a game is the limit of your imagination, that is what it is —for you. For me, I wonder whether it is even a “second” life. Isn’t it more of a complement to or extension of our first lives than an alternate life?

I wonder, too, why we routinely contrast this “second” life with our “real” life? Are we less real in this world? What is unreal about friendship, love, and community? Are the tears we shed for our friends in this world less liquid, less salty, less painful?

No matter how different the digital presentation of an individual in SL may be from their physical manifestation in the non-digital world; their character remains the same. They have the same psychology, the same fears, the same hopes and the same habits of mind. If they are petty in their first life; they remain petty in their second. If they are open-hearted in the first; they are in their second.

I am not ignoring how Second Life frees people to be more open in expressing themselves because it leaves behind those impediments to self-fulfillment such as concerns about appearance, health, mobility and class. Actually, I think in many ways, we can express who we truly are even more completely in this world where our physical appearance is a facade. We can be free to be who we really are, our best, aspirational selves. You might even say we can be more real.

I have rambled far afield. I guess, for those who think this is TLDR, all I can say is that friendship is valuable and real wherever you find it. Treasure it.

Siren Song

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This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls

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The String Mausoleum Has Your Hair Fair OUT THERE

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Helena Stringer doesn’t like normal. In fact, I’d say she’s one of those people who believe normal isn’t healthy which I heartily agree with. I like it different, despite the fact that I normally rock a blonde haired blue eyed blogger girl, that’s a lazy comfort zone for me.

Hair Fair is where I often find myself taking a step outside of that comfort zone , and The String Mausoleum is very often where I find that reality come to life.

I’m not bringing you the gauntlet of the Hair Fair AWESOME from Helena but my three faves because I like things in threes. Continue reading →

Hair Fair Profiles: Oblivion by Albakruna

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This is the first in a series of profiles of some of the designers at Hair Fair 2015. Albakruna designs fantasy and role play hair, with a strong emphasis on historically accurate hair designs. Her store is named Oblivion.

Hair Designer Albakruna – photo by Albakruna, used with permission.

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Albakruna: Actually I consider every day of my days in Second Life the craziest, silliest, funniest ever because let’s face it, even just hovering over a cloud in the sky while building is not that usual. What chained me to this world and still keep me thrilled about is the fact you virtually can do whatever as the imagination is the only limit and, we know, imagination has no limits 🙂
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Event Madness (In the Best Possible Way)

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Even though there were few people awake when i visited the Hair Fair sims during the blogger preview, I dressed for a crowd. I wore just a hairbase, my default avatar, no shoes and this lovely little romper from Tee*fy. Of course, once I went back home, I jumped back into my mesh body and added some shoes, hair and accessories, because, well, I felt naked without my mesh body. What struck me as incredibly funny, though, is that I ran into four other bloggers who were wearing this romper, obviously having the same idea as me. The nice thing was that everyone was wearing a different print, thanks to the amazing quantity of prints and colors that Azure Electricteeth produced for Collabor88 this month.

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I wondered what possible new thing Sasy, Mel and Whimsy could come up with for this year’s Hair Fair. What could top those boxes of hair dye from last year? Well, this time the stores are giant shopping bags. There are also a few spills of shopping bags scattered around, you can even walk inside them. There are huge lipstick displays, too. Of course, I had to check out the ones on the Redhead sim.  Continue reading →